Dog walkers found charred remains

Murder victim Barry Smith.

The partner of Barry Smith has described the moment she was told the body of the father-of-four had been found.

Rowena Pearson told a jury at Leicester Crown Court she was woken by a friend ‘banging on the door’ of her home on the morning of October 6 last year.

Miss Pearson said: ”I thought it was the police, it was like ‘bang, bang, bang, bang’ I put on my dressing gown and looked out of the window.

“It was my friend Caz. She was screaming and going hysterical shouting ‘There’s been a body found at the club, they think it’s Barry’. I laughed at her and said ‘You’ve got to be joking, it can’t be Barry’.”

The court had previously been told that Mr Smith, originally from Armthorpe, was beaten to death with pool cues and a fence post, dragged to a pile of rubbish and set alight in a ‘savage and merciless attack’.